Historical October 1984 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
The historic, newly renovated Lewis Center in University City will be dedicated with a “Lewis Center Gala” from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14.
The center, formerly called the Ward Building, is located at 725 Kingsland Ave., two buildings north of the University City Public Library. Hosts of the gala event are: the Washington University School of Fine Arts, which is leasing nearly half of the building for studio and classroom space; McCormack, Baron & Associates, the management, development and consulting firm which bought the structure in September 1983 from the University City School District; Signet Arts, a gallery which has relocated to the Lewis Center; and the Historical Society of University City.
Following opening ceremonies at 4:15 p.m., each host will conduct ongoing programs.
All events are free and open to the public.
The School of Fine Arts, whose students and faculty have been working in the building since the opening of classes in September, will present glass blowing, pottery and printmaking demonstrations; art exhibitions; an informal fashion show; and a sale of student work. McCormack, Baron & Associates, with E.M. Harris Building Company—the contractors for the renovation project and Trivers Associates Architects Planners— the architects will conduct tours of some of the 44 one- and two-bedroom apartments which they have built in the remaining half of the building. Signet Arts will exhibit recent works of James McGarrell, a painter and professor of art at the School of Fine Arts.
The Historical Society of University City, in cooperation with the University City Public Library, will present a slide show on the city’s history.
The Lewis Center was built in 1909 by University City founder Edward Gardner Lewis to house the Academy of Fine Arts of the American Woman’s League.
The original classrooms and studios, boasting numerous skylights and slanted glass walls, now provide space for the School of Fine Art’s classes in multi-media, ceramics, sculpture, glassmaking, photography, and graphic and three-dimensional design.
The consolidation of these disciplines, which had been scattered in six separate locations around town, causes, School of Fine Arts Dean Roger I. DesRosiers to call the gala event “a celebration of consolidation.” The remaining art school departments are housed in Bixby Hall on the Washington University campus. Shuttle buses transport students between the two buildings. Lewis’s art school was closed in 1914 and the building was sold in 1915 to the University City School District for its junior and senior high schools.
The senior high school moved to a new building in 1930, and the district’s administrative offices moved in with the junior high school.
The building was named “Luther T. Ward Junior High School” in 1936 and in 1937 a second junior high school was opened. Ward Junior High School closed in 1949; the administrative offices remained in the building until September 1982.
The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, with other Lewis structures in the vicinity.
The School of Fine Arts has signed a seven-year lease agreement, with an option to buy at the end of the lease period, with McCormack, Baron & Associates.
The original portion of the Lewis Center, facing Delmar Boulevard, is a three-story, Classical Revival structure.
The entrance lobby and two adjoining staircases are treated with white and black marble.
For more information on the Lewis Center Gala, call Patricia Aitken at 889-6515.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, October 1984.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1984_10.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
